Theatre fire codes must be heeded, but good luck finding them
A BackstageJobs.com user’s e-mail lead me to this discovery. This person had discovered that the theatre they were working in had no fire extinguishers. This would seem odd to pretty much any theatre person in the US, if not the world. The reasoning given by building management was that because the sprinkler system could be manually activated through pull bars, they were not required to keep portable fire extinguishers.
This seemed odd to the user, as well as myself, for the simple reason of extreme water damage to a given room, if not the whole building, just to put out a small fire. After all, few fires start out large. It is much better to stop a fire before it gets large enough to activate a sprinkler system on its own. The user asked me if I knew what the fire code said about extinguishers. Off the top of my head, I don’t even know the exact regulation for Chicago, but I was willing to look it up. I knew it was complicated, but what I discovered about simply finding the pertaining codes astounded me in its difficulty.
Fire codes differ from state to state. Most states use the National Fire Protection Association’s code as a base, either adopting it completely and creating additional sections, or adopting sections of it and adding their own sections. But: (online, anyway) they won’t reprint the NFPA 1 code (or sections they are using), they just reference it. So, you must start with getting a copy of the NFPA 1 code.
But wait! They want you to buy it for $71.00. Or you can read it for free on their website, and when they say “read,” that is the only thing they will let you do with it online:
GRANT OF LICENSE. NFPA grants you, the NFPA visitor, a nonexclusive and nontransferable license to view online the content of the Online Document. The Online Document is designed to be viewed online only – there are no “print,” “save,” or “cut and paste” options – and the license granted to you by this agreement does not include the right to download, reproduce, store in a retrieval system, modify, make available on a network, use to create derivative works, or transmit the content of the Online Document in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise.
User friendly, huh?
But wait, there’s more! You should also have a copy of the National Electric Code, as well as other NFPA codes that might relate to your venue. Such as NFPA 10 (Fire Extinguishers), NFPA 101B (Means of Egress from Buildings), NFPA 102 (Grandstands, telescoping seating, and tents), NFPA 160 (Flame effects for an audience), and NFPA 1126 (Pyrotechnics for an audience). And that’s just the ones that pertain to the possible stage operations of a theatre. Have a costume or scene shop? Well then you need to the ones about static electricity, aerosol sprays, paint storage, and many others.
Once you have your national codes, it’s time to move on to getting your state’s additions and modifications to it. Good luck with that. Some are easy to find, some seem not to exist. But then it gets better! Each county in your state may have its own additions or variations on the state code, or it may be exempt from the state code completely because it has its own code. THEN, your municipality may have additions or variations to both the state or county code, OR may be exempt from all them because the municipality has its own code. It is up to you to find out.
Codes may or may not be available online, and many are only available in print for a fee (the Chicago code appears only to be available in print for $85.00, though you can read all the codes online for $350.00), which is not very helpful to low budget companies or individuals simply attempting to follow those laws.
Is it any wonder that we find so many violations of fire code in theatres?
I believe it is time for local governments, especially those of large cities, to create either webpages or booklets containing all laws specific to theatres and other performance venues in that area. One should not have to dig through four different codes just to find out the requirement for fire extinguishers in their theatre. I am not saying that every law that would pertain to the entire building be included, but it shouldn’t be that hard to find laws written precisely for performance venues.
It is certainly time for all fire codes to be available online, free of charge, from the government body that is using them. The adoption of a private group’s guidelines as public law should allow for the viewing of those laws by the public, without restrictions on maintaining a personal copy, or requiring a payment to know those laws.
On behalf of theatre professionals, theatre-goers, and our families, I call on every theatre trade and industry group to push for for this simple goal: make the laws that we are obliged to follow easily identifiable and easily available. Doing so can make our jobs easier, inspectors’ workload lighter, and our audiences safer.
And for those of you wondering, the NFPA code says that nothing within it should be used to restrict the use or placement of the appropriate type of portable extinguisher. Extinguishers should always be placed in a visible location, never obscured, and not stored in emergency stairwells in lieu of placing them on each floor of the building. Minimum distance calculations should not include stairways, as stairs are considered an obstruction to rapid obtaining of an extinguisher, as well as obstructing the view of it. However, as noted above, the state or local codes may supersede the NFPA code.
Hudson & Gaines
I am a fire artist and it irresponsible not to have multiply fire extinguishers, in a building with a lot of people, even with a sprinkler system. I think NFPA wants people to be members, for you to get access to the codes. If you are working with fire in front of an audience you should also read NFPA 160. Every event should have a fire plan and have a few crew members trained in the use of fire extinguishers.
richard
You single, most important document you need is the International Fire Code(IFC). Go to their web site: http://www.iccsafe.org for an order. It rerferences the NFPA codes you wrote about, and therefore you most likely will not need any further publications.
The IFC had been adopted and is enforced my most of the US code officials.